Being Dead
by aThingwithWings
Summary: What's it like, being dead? Oneshot, IchiRuki, I guess.


**Being Dead**

**By: 複有形の同伴鳥の **(that's aThingwithWings in Japanese, doncha know!)

Oi, so this is upload number two, which was originally going to be upload number one, but I felt the urge to write a Christmas story, but nevermind. Anyway, tis short, but hopefully that won't become a habit!

I also just want to give a big thank you for those who reviewed my previous story! THANK YOU!!!! (see, a big thank you!) all your nice reviews made me feel really warm and fuzzy inside! I kinda thought that last story wasn't that great, but perhaps I am, as they say, my own worst critic. But anyway, thank you and enjoy!

Oops! don't sue me- Disclaimer: No really, I am Tite Kubo! I own all the rights to Bleach, and, hey, what are you doing?! Let go of me! A straight-jacket-? no, help! Yah, just kidding. I own absolutely nothing, none of the characters, (except for the main one, I made him up), they all belong to their respective owners. Who are not me.

* * *

Being dead was… different.

You always read about it, in stories. You wake up, thinking you're alive. Then, after you try and make contact with people, you slowly come to the realization that you are dead. You realize that the idea had been sitting there, in the back of your subconscious; you just did not acknowledge it. After that, you spend the rest of your time searching for a way out until you either find an escape or go crazy.

That's not how it happens. For me, anyway.

When I woke up, I knew I was dead. I remembered dying, being hit by that car. And the fact that I had this large chain sticking out of my chest helped me out a little. As soon as I realized I was dead, I gave up. There was not anything I could do to escape where I was.

Yeah, being dead was different. And boring.

When you're dead, there's little you can do. You end up wandering the streets, seeing the places you once visited in life, faces that you knew. Occasionally, I would find others, like me, and we would talk. Not about anything important; we just talked to pass the time. Nothing exciting ever happened. Sometimes I would wish there would come something to break up my routine.

You know how they say, "Be careful what you wish for"? Yeah, should've listened.

I've never run for my life before. Never felt such an intense terror and fear that I wanted to die from it. Well, now I can say that I have.

That night, as I ran away from the hideous monster with the freakish white mask, I wondered what I'd done to deserve this. Sure, I hadn't been perfect, but, who is? Thoughts and hypotheses ran through my head as I desperately tried to escape the beast. I had almost come to a conclusion, as ridiculous as it is, when I tripped.

Can dead people trip?

The monster stood over me, the moonlight glinting off the white mask in an eerie, disturbing kind of way. It gave me a leering grin, saliva dripping from its many fangs. Arching its back, it prepared for the kill; I closed my eyes, saying prayers to gods I had never believed in.

Can you die twice?

I waited for the ripping, the tearing. For the excruciating pain to shoot through my body, for the beast to sever the last ties I had with this world. The slavering beast roared above me. It would be soon.

Lucky for me, God heard my feverish prayers.

I opened my eyes. The blow had never come. I was still alive. Well, as alive as a dead person is. Sitting up, I saw my saviors, two black robed persons, standing over the body of my pursuer. At least, I think it was the monster; it was dissolving into a million particles, which disappeared into the night sky.

I focused my attention on the two figures who had their back to me. The taller one, with a menacing cleaver-like sword slung across his shoulders, had spiking orange hair and the body of a, well, samurai, I guess. Standing next to him was a shorter person, with shoulder length black hair. She to had a sword, this one not so big and looking more like a normal katana. One thing stuck out though: they were fighting.

Almost like they could here my thoughts, they turned to face me. Suddenly I wondered, What if these are the bad guys? I finally got a look at their faces, though. Carrot-top was sporting a magnificent scowl, and for a second I entertained the idea that it was that face that had killed the monster. His brow furrowed deeper (if that was possible) when he saw me. The woman next to him (it was a woman; explains the short stature) was yelling at him for something, her brilliant violet-blue eyes flashing in annoyance. Quite the pair.

"Oi, you!" the man yelled, waving at me. "You alright?"She kicked the man in the shins, berating him for his calloused manner and lack of tact. As they continued to fight and exchange verbal abuses, I could only think one thing: These were the two that saved me?

Exasperated, the woman stormed away from the man, heading towards me. As she knelt in front of me, her demeanor changed, now the picture of calm and grace, miles away from what she had been moments earlier.

"Sorry about that," she said apologetically, kneeling in front of me. "My partner," she flashed him a glare that would send any normal person into hiding. "Has a brain the size of a pea." She turned back to me. "We're here to send you on, to the next world, a place called Soul Society." My blank stare must have told her I did not understand. "It's a place filled with souls, like you, and shinigami, like me. I can't assure you it will be any better than this place, but," she shrugged, giving me a half-smile. "you'll never know till you've been there right?"

"Sure," I managed to say. She smiled again, and raised her sword-hilt, touching my forehead. A glowing light came from within me, and a warm, bubbly feeling spread throughout my soul.

"Goodbye and good luck," she said as I started to dissipate.

My last sight of the real world was their faces.

- -

That first week in Soul Society was rough.

Luckily, I was able to find a "family" to take me in. They told me the important things I would need to know to survive here.

I learned that the place we were in is called Rukongai, and it's where all the normal souls go. In the center of Soul Society is a place called Siereitei; that's where all the shinigami live. The shinigami were here to protect us from these things called hollows, which were once normal souls like us, but had turned to the dark side, you could say. Confusing, I know. But hey, I was dead; I had all the time in the world to figure it all out.

Imagine my surprise when I soon became hungry.

Dead people don't get hungry.

"Um, is it normal to be, you know, hungry?" I tentatively asked my adopted brother. I had often asked quite stupid questions, and as a result got picked on, so I was careful with my questioning.

He shrugged. "Sure. Being hungry just means you have spiritual power. Like the shinigami."

This opened up a whole new world of questions. My adoptive parents taught me the in's and out's of spiritual pressure, reiatsu and the like. An utterly bewildering subject, and all it means is that I have some sort of power. And I was hungry.

I then went on my quest to feed myself. In the process, I learned of the numbering system of the Rukongai areas. I felt my good luck meter increase when someone told me we were in the area numbered five. That made my quest for sustenance that much easier. But this world is full of suprises.

Apparently (no one told me), I have a fairly large amount of spiritual pressure. Exhibit A being when two shinigami came and enrolled me in the Shinigami Academy.

Woohoo. Honestly, when I heard that, I didn't know whether to be excited or not. At least I got a sword.

So I said my goodbye's, not like there were that many, and set off to my new adventure in the afterlife. I got to go to school; again.

-

I had always been an average student. You know, a mix of B's and A-'s. Here, where it wasn't really about knowledge so much, I excelled. Time passed. I graduated in three years, a bit above average. Immediately, I was enlisted into the Gotei Thirteen, into the sixth squad, under Kuchiki Byakuya.

Life went on. Months passed, and I quickly rose in the ranks of squad six. People liked me; I think. Kuchiki-taicho was indifferent to me. I had it pretty good, all things considered; I mean, I was still dead.

Things were good; until the war.

I don't know how it started. I'm not sure if anyone does. All I know is that some guy, with a nasty grudge against the Gotei Thirteen, gathered a huge force, compromised of a mixture of rogue shinigami and hollows, and attacked the Siereitei. How original.

But originality aside, he really was powerful. As we were, we honestly didn't stand a chance against him.

That is, until they came.

Just when Soul Society was in dire need of a savior, someone who would kick bad guy arse, they came. That strange duo, the spiky-haired man and the dark-haired women, my own personal rescuers, came and saved us.

I finally learned their names: Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia. Yeah, you heard me, Kuchiki. My captain's sister.

Anyway, they quickly got their own special attack squad. And once again, luck was with me, and I was selected to fight with them.

At least, I think it was lucky.

The squad wasn't big, but it was filled with legends from battles I had only read about. Warriors from the Gotei Thirteen like Ikkaku Madarame, Yumichika Ayasegawa, Matsumoto Rangiku, Hitsugaya-taicho, Abarai Renji; also hailing from the real world were the famous ryoka Sado Yasutora, Inoue Orihime, and Ishida Uryuu. Of course, leading us were Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia, probably two of the most famous (or infamous) people in all of Soul Society.

It was interesting, being under their command. I mean, they always fought. Always. Over the simplest, most petty things you can think of. Apparently, they were best friends. I don't know who came up with that one.

But on the battlefield, watch out. When they fought (with their swords, mind you), they fought. It had its own kind of beauty, they way they battled. More than once I could have sworn that they could read each other's minds; that's just how synchronized they were in their movements. Not to mention that their reiatsu's were immense.

I think it's needless to say that the war was quickly won once they started fighting. Much celebrating ensued, and, as I sit here and write this a year after the fact, there are still celebrations going on in honor of that war. Well, at least today those celebrations are going to be for something else.

Bells toll in the distance. It's taken me the better part of the morning to write this all out, and it appears I am going to be late if I don't finish this soon.

I mean, who in their right minds would be late for the wedding of the century? Especially when it's the long awaited union of, yes, you guessed it, Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia.

Today is a happy day for most everyone. If you knew the two, it had been oh so painfully obvious to _everyone_ that they had feelings for each other. So it really hadn't been much of a surprise when Kurosaki proposed. Actually, it was more of a relief.

But, like I said, _almost_ everyone.

There was only one person in the whole of Soul Society who disapproved of the marriage: Kuchiki Byakuya. Ichigo had even done it all proper-like, asking Byakuya for Rukia's hand in marriage before he asked her. To everyone's surprise, Kuchiki-taicho said no. It took the whole of Soul Society to convince him that it wasn't the end of the world. Eventually, he relented.

Much to my surprise, I have been given the job of scribe to the infamous Kurosaki-Kuchiki team. As the third seat of the sixth division, who owes his current "life" to those two, Ukitake-taicho of the thirteenth division thought it fitting that I be the one who writes down all the numerous adventures of those two and their friends. I'd be setting it down in ink for posterity, as he said.

Once again, I hear bells tolling in the distance. The time is near. It would be quite a tragedy for me, as the official scribe to the two, to miss their wedding. I must go now.

Finally, this introduction is complete. I hope you will explore further into the contents of this saga, in order to see the true retelling of the life and times of

Death and Strawberry.

* * *

So there it is. Not much, but whatev. I wrote this story as like an opening to my other stories, like I was the scribe, but many of future stories will have overlapping times and different plots, but whatever.

Anyway, my stories will stay short one-shots for a while, but I've got a couple big ones brewing around in my head. Big as in six to seven chapters. Which is a lot for me. I once tried to write something really long, and I lost interest halfway through and stopped. But anyway...

Here's a quick preview of what's to come: "Her Worst Fear", "Jefferson Aeroplane", "Death and Strawberry", "somethingelsethatIcan'tremeberwhatInamed", maybe one called "Wrath of the Cherry Blossoms" (but it needs a lot of work), and one more that I haven't name, but it will be lengthy.

So that's all for now. Review and stay tuned! (and recommend me to your friends! :-P)(Jk !)


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